Its a good time to be a student, thanks in part to a sweet Windows 7 discount from Microsoft

Windows 7 is getting closer to its
October 22 launch date. With improved
security, better compatibility, and a slick
new look, the OS should please owners of both powerful and
underpowered machines alike. Microsoft has already offered hot
pre-order deals, but now it has announced its sweetest deal of
them all.

Students with a valid student email address are
eligible to get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional,
32-bit or 64-bit (your choice, presumably some might pick the lighter
Home Premium for netbooks) for a mere $30. And with one
announcement, Microsoft has essentially matched Apple's OS price
point for one of its most pivotal demographics -- students.

Apple
beat Windows 7 to the market and has been loudly
trumpeting that its Snow Leopard -- priced at $29 per license --
beats Windows 7 in prices. However, students in the U.S., U.K,
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico will now have
their pick between the two competitors at virtually identical
prices.

With Snow Leopard, students will get several key
improvements (virtually all of Apple's core software was fine-tuned
and sped up), but the release falls somewhere between a full Windows
OS release and a Windows Service Pack. For an equivalent price
they can get Windows 7, a full OS release packing many features that
have drawn rave reviews from early adopters. The deal is sweet
for users of traditional PC hardware and Macs alike, as even Mac
users can take advantage of it to equip their Boot Camp Macs with
Windows 7 for gaming
and Windows-favored activities.

The deal is found on the
win741.com site, a recently
launched site from Microsoft, which calls the offer "too sweet
to pass up." The site proclaims, "For a limited time,
eligible college students can get the sweetest deal on Windows 7 -
for only $29.99 USD. That's less than most of your textbooks!
Hurry -- offer ends January 3, 2010 and 12 a.m. CST."

One
major appeal of the deal is that with Windows 7 and a netbook,
students get about the most portable and affordable bundle possible
for a fully functional computer.

The move seems a smart one,
given that Apple does have Microsoft beat on standard prices, with a
copy of Home Premium (upgrade) retailing for $120 and $200 for a
Professional upgrade (versus $29 for Snow Leopard). With the
price bar set nearly four times as high as Apple's, the pressure is
on Microsoft to deliver a dynamite product -- which indications show
it will.

Still, Snow Leopard's aggressive pricing has caused
it to double the initial sales of its predecessor, Leopard, and
quadruple the sales of Tiger. Apple has also been much more
aggressive in targeting school children, with programs such as "Field
Trip to the Apple Store" in the U.S. and Canada. Many
schools continue to use Mac
computers primarily. All of this bodes well for Apple's
long term success. However, Microsoft is at last making a
legitimate bid to seize this important demographic from Apple.

"Mac OS X is like living in a farmhouse in the country with no locks, and Windows is living in a house with bars on the windows in the bad part of town." -- Charlie Miller